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73 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The first three episodes in Takahashi's epic tale., October 31, 2002
Rumiko Takahashi is one of the, if not the, most famous female manga artist in the world. With titles such as "Ranma" and "Maison Ikokku" in her resume, she has established a worldwide following and has garnered a reputation as the Queen of Romantic Comedy. Her latest undertaking, "Inu-Yasha", has already gained a cult following in the US and, like her other manga series, has been made into a successful anime series that has just a strong following in America. American publisher Viz, having already published twelve volumes in the US, now brings us the anime.At first glance, "Inu-Yasha" seems like a typical anime series. Kagome, a Japanese high school girl, is transported to the feudal age of Japan through a magical well, where she unwittingly awakens a cocky, imprisoned half-demon called Inu-Yasha. You see, Inu-Yasha was after the Shikon no Tama, a powerful jewel that could grant him his wish to become full demon, but a village priestess called Kikyo stopped him with a mystical arrow. Suffering from untreatable wounds, Kikyo decides to die and take with her to her grave the Shikon no Tama. But get this: Kagome is apparently Kikyo's reincarnation, and she just so happens to have the Shikon no Tama with her! Then, through a bizarre set of circumstances, the jewel ends up shattering and scattering all over Japan, and now Inu-Yasha and Kagome have to team up and find these pieces. Typical, huh? Not quite. You see, "Inu-Yasha" is a lot deeper than the first set of episodes will have you believe. Sure, it looks like something you'd find in just about every other fantasy anime series out there, but truthfully, the meat of the series is found in later episodes, when Takahashi demonstrates her true (if not bizarre) genius. But even with this in mind, the first three episodes found on this DVD do a really good job of starting the series and drawing you in. The characters are likable and three-dimensional, and the plot is executed at a reasonable pace. And with Takahashi's unique sense of humor spread all over, you know this series is over-the-top as well as dark and intriguing. Overall, the first three episodes are well done and should give the viewer a general idea of what to look forward to, even though Takahashi's plot twists are completely unexpected. Visually, "Inu-Yasha" is one of the cleanest series around. The artwork isn't as clean as, say, that of "X: TV", but it's definately sharp and crisp enough to make an average viewer go "wow!". Character models present marvelous representations of their manga counterparts, backgrounds are vibrant and fully detailed, and movement is smooth and fluid. In short, "Inu-Yasha" is a beautiful series that does justice to its source material. Sound wise, the music is a beautiful compliment to the visuals. It's not the most memorable of soundtracks, but Kaoru Wada's melodies are beautiful and wistful and can get emotional when they need to be. The one complaint I have, however, is that the songs tend to repeat themselves quite often and some songs are often nothing more than variations of other songs. But overall, the series' soundtrack has no real complaints. And the opening and ending...well, the ending song is really haunting and ends each episode on a perfect note, but who's idea was it to use a Korean boy-band song as the opening? As for the English dub...to put it simply, the dub is above average. It does have its problems, but overall it's enjoyable. Richard Cox does a marvelous job as the half-demon Inu-Yasha, bringing the cocky anti-hero to life wonderfully. Monica Stori, unfortunately, stumbles at the beginning as the heroine Kagome. Many complain about her sounding too young, but I feel her biggest problem was that at first she didn't feel comfortable with her role. In later episodes she improves remarkably, but starting out she sounds somewhat stale and flat. Pam Hyatt does a respectable job as Kaede, but she can sometimes sound unenthusiastic and it's somewhat weird that she speaks in Old English and no one else does... ...which brings me to the dub's biggest problem: the script, written by Trish Ledoux, who also wrote the script for "Ranma". Trish has an annoying habit of using "Trishisms," which are cliches and catchphrases, in her scripts and it's these Trishisms that bring the dub down. Adding in her own "touches" such as the phrase, "Toto, I don't think we're in Tokyo anymore" makes the script feel dumbed down. Granted, the script doesn't drastically alter the story in any way, but these Trishisms are the biggest thing holding the quality of the English track back. So in general, for die-hard fans of the show, the dub will be debatable because they associate the characters so much with the original Japanese voices and thus anything that doesn't fit will render the dub a travesty; nitpicking and complaints such as "they pronounce names differently" or "this voice sounds off" or "Kagome says, 'Sit, boy!'" will definately be popping up in many reviews to come. But for casual anime fans who won't have to go into the show with this kind of baggage for an incredibly popular series, the dub should satisfy. Overall, the first volume of "Inu-Yasha" is a solid release. The only complaint I have about the show is that the content of the series was toned down from the manga to meet television standards (no full frontal nudity, not as much violence, etc.), but that's only a minor complaint. Many will complain about the episode count per DVD, but just remember that the Japanese got only two episodes on the first disc and you may feel better (maybe). But if you're still unsure as to whether you'll like this series or not, you can catch it on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block in a very, very lightly edited format. And since the show gets better as the series progresses over its 90+ episodes (it's still running in Japan, by the way), there will be plenty more "Inu-Yasha" to get excited about in the future.
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38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Start of a Long, yet Entertaining Epic Story, September 9, 2002
The famed Rumiko Takahashi's -- known for her very popular series like Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku, and Urusei Yatsura -- most recent masterpiece is the story that encompasses many different genres, a sample being: love, action, suspense, and comedy. You wonder how epic the story is? Inu Yasha still has yet to conclude in Japan. Right now, it is currently at episode 86 with no signs that it's ready to finish anytime soon. The second Inu Yasha movie is scheduled for this winter in Japan.The series is named after a half-human, half-demon called Inu Yasha. One day on her fifteenth birthday, Kagome entered a well that was inside her family's shrine. Little did she know that she would be transported to the past in a time where many youkai (demons) dwell. There she realizes that she is the reincarnation of a past priestess named Kikyo who had the destiny to purify and protect the Shikon no Tama, a jewel that manifests and increases the evil desires and power of youkai and evil humans. Kagome wandered throughout the new place where she had arrived and found Inu Yasha, a dog-like half-youkai that Kikyo had sealed before her untimely death. Kagome had discovered the Shikon no Tama hidden within her while an encounter with a youkai. However, the Shikon no Tama had been shattered and dispersed after battling a different youkai. After learning more about this time, Kagome eventually accepted her destiny to find and protect the Shikon no Tama (while still juggling school work) as well with the help of a likeable cast of strong warriors. As the story progresses, it branches out a lot and becomes deeper and more complicated. New enemies, new friends, and new loves are all revealed. The only problem with this anime that I had was the addition of filler episodes. I can take a few but they just seemed to have a series of them or at the worst times. They ruined the progression of the story especially when it just started to pick up. Even though they are there to help the character development, when the series has reached a length of like eighty episodes, viewers feel they know the characters well enough already. The music is very well done. Some background tracks are very nice and smooth that help express the mood. The battle, action, and suspense scenes do help increase tension. The vocal songs have a nice variety of mood settings with the lyrics expressing the tone of the series at that certain point of the series. All the songs are avextrax done by Avex, a well-known Japanese music company with famous artists and groups like Ayumi Hamasaki, Namie Amuro, and Do As Infinity. The opening song is called, "I want to change the world," performed by V6, which has a nice mellow tune to it that fits the start of a story and adventure. The ending song is called, "My Will," by Dream that is a very nice song. It expresses feelings through an upbeat version of a slow song. It has an upbeat tempo but is slowed down and performed with a nice, smooth voice. Viz brings a reasonable dub to Inu Yasha. Inu Yasha is now being shown on Cartoon Network's late block of more mature anime, Adult Swim. Currently Adult Swim features other anime like Cowboy Bebop and Yu Yu Hakusho. The voices fit with the characters. I had a few problems with some translations and pronunciations. They translated the phrase, "Osuwari ('Sit' as a command)" as "Sit Boy." I can understand the need to fill in the syllables but it just sounds weird to me. They pronounced a name very oddly. They pronounced Kaede (emphasis on the Ka) Ka-EE-deh with a VERY strong emphasis on the 'e.' But I do commend them on trying to keep the old Japanese feel to it by having terms like Shikon no Tama remain in Japanese. Final Note: I think Viz will pull out a very solid release and with the story being solid as well, many will continue to pick up this series in the future. The only problem I have is the three episode per DVD release. It's a good thing that the price has been dropped five dollars however, with such a long series, I don't think three episodes per DVD will cut it. I hope that maybe later, Viz will pull it up to four or five episodes per each DVD.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Alice in Wonderland-style anime with a twist!, June 30, 2003
Kagome is just your average 15-year-old girl from Tokyo who happens to live with her mother, brother, and grandfather in an ancient shrine. Kagome has no patience for the legends that her grandfather preaches about and prefers to live her life has any teenager would. Unfortunately for Kagome, she is destined to more than this. One day, while searching for the family cat near her family's well she is pulled into the well by a strange centipede demon. After somehow magically forcing the demon away it vanishes and Kagome is left at the bottom of her well as if the whole thing never happened, or so she thinks. When she climbs out of the well she finds that she has traveled back in time to Feudal Japan in the Warring states Era. Pinned to a giant nearby tree is a strange looking boy with pointy dog-ears. After being kidnapped and taken to a local village she learns that this boy's name is Inuyasha, a half-demon who once sought to possess the Shikon no Tama, a sacred jewel. Kagome doesn't understand what's going on or why she so resembles the last keeper of the jewel, Kikiyo until she discovers she herself possesses the sacred jewel and Inuyasha is accidentally awakened. Through a series of events the jewel is accidentally shattered through out the land. Now Kagome and Inuyasha are the only ones who can work together to find the shards of the sacred jewel. That is if they don't kill each other first.Inuyasha is an anime based on the graphic by Rumiko Takahashi, the most popular female comic book creator in the world. The characters are impossible not to like. Inuyasha, who shares the main character slot with Kagome, is a complicated hero who doesn't always act heroic. Kagome is very easy to relate to, making her a heroine that you'll find yourself cheering for regardless of the odds. The story lines shown on this DVD are absolutely thrilling. Down the Well has the first three episodes of the TV show, "The Girl who Overcame Time, And the Boy who was Just Over Come," "Seekers of the Sacred Jewel," and "Down the Rabbit Hole and Back Again." The first two tell about how the jewel was found and shattered and the third one starts out the two-episode Yura of the Demon hair arc. All three of these are great episodes that fans of anime will enjoy to the fullest. One thing I enjoy about this DVS is you can watch the episodes both dubbed or with subtitles (personally I don't have a preference but I know a lot of people detest dubs so they'll be glad to know this!). Personally I think the casts for both versions are very fitting to the characters they play (even though Kagome's voice was a bit annoying in the beginning on the dub.) The dub is decent, although whoever wrote the dub script must have had a thing for bad clichés because there are a couple of them in here that make me cringe. Besides that this is a great show and not a bad DVD either, if not pricey. The animation is impressive and very pleasing to the eye. After watching this DVD I couldn't wait to watch the next one. I highly recommend you check this series out. You don't know what you're missing!
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